Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: This Woman Is a Ticking Time Bomb

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Shen Qingran was startled by the sudden apology. Just as she was puzzled, Zhao Cuifang suddenly knelt down with a thud.

“Sister, it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have blabbered nonsense with my foul mouth. Please forgive me!”

“If you don’t forgive me today, my old Kong will kick me back to the countryside. I’m kowtowing to you; please be magnanimous and don’t hold grudges against someone like me.”

Shen Qingran noticed many eyes turning toward them. She calmly looked at Zhao Cuifang.

“Sister-in-law, what does it have to do with me if your man is sending you back to the countryside?”

Zhao Cuifang gritted her silver teeth, furious. It must have been that country bumpkin who reported her to the political commissar. The commissar had come overnight and harshly scolded her husband Kong. After the commissar left, Kong angrily cursed her and told her to get lost back to her hometown.

Zhao Cuifang had spent the whole night anxious and, at dawn, sneaked over while Kong was out for drills to beg Shen Qingran. As a young military wife with a thin skin, she believed if Shen Qingran relented, she could surely stay. She pinched her own thigh hard, tears streaming down in torrents.

“Sister, my daughter’s husband treats her badly. If I go back to the countryside, she’ll surely be beaten to death, with no one to support her! You can’t just watch her die!”

Her crying and kneeling soon attracted a crowd. People gathered and asked, “What’s going on?”

Shen Qingran’s expression remained unchanged as she watched Zhao Cuifang’s desperate apology. Zhao Cuifang’s heart raced; clearly, she had to escalate her act. She began banging her forehead fiercely against the stones, blood welling from the wounds.

The crowd urged her, “Sister Shen, just forgive Sister Zhao. We’re all family in this compound; no need to make things so ugly.”

“Exactly, talk it out nicely. Look, she’s apologizing like this; no matter how angry you are, you should let it go.”

Zhao Cuifang lowered her eyes and hit the ground harder, nearly fainting. Some hot-tempered sisters-in-law even scolded her, “What kind of mistake is worth torturing yourself like this? You’re so stubborn; don’t be surprised if you break one day.”

Shen Qingran did not respond. Her tolerance did not mean others could treat her as a doormat. She looked coldly at Zhao Cuifang and asked, “Then can you tell everyone what exactly you did wrong?”

All eyes turned to Zhao Cuifang.

“I…I just said some gossip.”

Gossip?

Shen Qingran frowned deeply, her voice cold and detached.

“If you won’t say it, then I will.”

“You told others that I’m a country tramp, that marrying Huo Tingxiao was just me climbing into bed, that he and I are just a sham couple, that he’s half-blind, which is why he got entangled with a seductress like me.”

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“Do you want me to keep going?”

The crowd was stunned. They had heard some rumors but nothing so cruel.

“Aunt Zhao, you hold a grudge against Huo Tingxiao for your daughterI'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.